Seventeen and Insane
by JK614
Summary: One shot based after the ending of Fahrenheit 451 telling what I think happened to Clarisse and a bit with Montag. Written for my english lit class.


**A/N: This is a short story I wrote for my english class and decided to post here to see how you all like it.**

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Seventeen and Insane

Clarisse walked and thought about front porches and what it would be like to sit in a rocking chair on one. She thought about the lengthened billboards and what it would be like if people drove slow enough to see what was around them. Even what it would be like if people _lived_ slow enough to see what was around them. She thought of fast cars and her uncle. She thought about happiness and choice. She thought of everything _they_ didn't want her to think about.

Clarisse walked and thought of the things she would do, given the choice. She thought about bike riding and learning other cultures and languages. She thought about reading and writing. She thought of everything _they_ didn't want her to do.

Thinking was her silent rebellion. Walking was her active rebellion that almost no one would see.

So she walked and thought. At first she walked through streets, mindful of the cars speeding down them, then through woods and fields, making her way to nowhere.

Clarisse didn't remember when the thought struck her, but one day she decided that she needed a fresh start. She needed to go somewhere new. Staying where she was did nothing and she had a feeling that if she hadn't left they would have found her. She knew that they kept records of people like her. People who thought and walked. She didn't want her mind reigned in, so she left.

Walking bid her time. She knew she couldn't act alone, so she walked, hoping to find others who walked, also silently rebelling with their thoughts until they found her. She hoped that they could all find each other. Then they would no longer have to silently rebel, their voices would be heard.

She eventually came along some others like her. She spoke to some of them. It was refreshing to hold a real conversation after so long of hearing only her own thoughts. After a while, she gained several followers, some left her little group to form their own. They traveled most of the time, only stopping when needed to sleep and eat, or to convince more to join their group.

They were mostly unsuccessful because many people who would like to speak out were afraid and stayed following society, so the group could not tell them from the thoughtless. Those who had not conformed to society were hard to find, since they hid away from the cities most of the time.

The group tried to stay positive, Clarisse usually being the most optimistic, but the rest loosing hope. Some even left to travel on their own after a time of no luck. The group was dwindling quickly and even Clarisse was having a hard time believing that they could win.

At first, she was so sure that she could start a revolution that would spread far and wide, but she was beginning to realize how many others had tried the same thing, and failed.

After several years of walking and recruiting, Clarisse came across Montag. He was very surprised to find that she was alive. She explained why she had left and how she had been silently rebelling and recruiting others to help. He told her of everything that happened to him after she left. He told her of his house being burned and of him leaving after that. He explained his plan of getting fireman's houses burned and finding the wanderers and memorizing books to pass on by telling instead of reading. He even "read" her his book. Montag told her of the bombing of the city shortly after he left it and how he had been wandering ever since, trying to do the same as her.

Clarisse found hope again. She found hope in the fact that a fireman, of all people, was so dedicated to preserving thought and choice, like her. She found hope in the fact that books may not be lost forever, after all. And she found hope in the fact that Montag's group brought more people to help their cause.

The groups had more trouble traveling now. Since the war had escalated, it had become more dangerous to travel between cities than it already was.

They stopped more often to stay away from the fighting, but even more people were still losing hope, even thought Clarisse had gained so much optimism.

It became infinitely harder to recruit people and even harder to find people that had memorized books. Clarisse's group had many more members now, though the number fluctuated sometimes, and Montag said his group had grown significantly from the beginning.

Clarisse had plans for their groups. If they joined together, they could do so much more. They could cover more ground and recruit more people. They could find more "books" and more thinkers. They had so much potential; she just had to get everyone else to hope too.

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**Drop me a review to let me know what you think.**


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